


Waking

by daiyu_amaya



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Not Really Character Death, Smart Zombies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-11
Updated: 2016-02-17
Packaged: 2018-05-19 19:42:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5978902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daiyu_amaya/pseuds/daiyu_amaya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There was something terribly wrong with this picture, and yet some things never changed for Spencer Reid, like the ability to reason even though he'd changed drastically.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Deejaymil](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deejaymil/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Nerds and the Lonely Dead](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5693764) by [Deejaymil](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deejaymil/pseuds/Deejaymil). 



> Just a short little piece that came to me after reading Nerds and the Lonely Dead ^_^

He knew something had changed, things were somehow wrong. He couldn't for the life of him figure it out, though. Why was it strange that he was hungry? He'd always been hungry in one way or another hadn't he? He shuffled across the bullpen, no one else was here in the bullpen, but there were others in the building, he could hear them. There were fat splotches of blood on the ground. Obviously, a fight had broken out, but why?

The building was suppose to be safe, so why were all these people milling around? Some really injured but no one attending to the wounds and strangely no one falling over dead from the wounds...What was going on here? He had no idea where anyone else on his team was either. Were they in the building somewhere or were they outside? He trudged to the roof, it would give him a good vantage point, as no electronics seemed to be working.

And what was that about? Even in emergency's the backup generators should be working. The outside world was a horrible burnt out mess from where he was standing, and for some reason the cold didn't bother him one wit, and seriously that frightened him, why didn't the cold bother him, it should bother him, snow covering the ground, no one had cleared any of it from the roads and cars were just sitting in the middle of the road and off on the side, some obviously burnt out.

His veins should be freezing at this point because he wasn't wearing a jacket and his shirt was all torn up. He made his way back inside, if he wanted to go anywhere in this weather he needed his jacket. The people here needed supplies too, but everyone seemed in a quite daze. For whatever reason no one was doing anything other then wandering aimlessly around here and so he'd go, find what he could and bring it back.

He wasn't sure how long he'd been traveling, just that he knew he had to do something, for what? He started to realise he knew these buildings, home, it wasn't far away. He trudged up the stairs and to his door, it was gone actually, his apartment ransacked. Why would anyone do that? It looked like someone had possibly lived here for a while, and how long had it been since he'd been home? How long had he been lost in a fog?

Shuffling around he found clothes, clean for the most part, so he changed. His fingers didn't want to cooperate with buttons, taking him far longer than it should have to put his shirt on. He put a bag together, supplies he might need as he traveled. He made his way to the bathroom, maybe his medical kit was still in there, he could disinfect the bite on his arm, wrap it. The mirror was broken, and that's when he saw his face for the first time.

Now he understood, and he was frightened. Obviously, he'd been dead for weeks, and how had that happened? How was it that he was walking around? Were the others like him or had they gotten to safety? His eyes were filmed over in death but he could see still, normal vision and all or at least, he couldn't remember ever having seen any better than he could now.

Would those who were still alive kill him? "No. I'm still here." His throat protested at the words, but he could still speak...Maybe he could make people think he used makeup or something to camouflage himself from the dead? But that was just stupid, he was obviously dead-no doubt smelled something horrible, then again depending on how long the world had been like this everyone's nose would be deadened by the scent of corpses.

He had to find out about the others, find out if they had lived or not. His supplies could still come in handy for survivors if he found any. There were Military bases, but he'd no doubt be shot on sight. It was hard for him to walk, after all, the cold stiffened his already stiff joints. Otherwise, he wasn't that badly hurt. Just the one bite, he'd fought off the dead that had attacked him.

A flash of memory hit him like a ton of bricks. "Spencer!" Morgan shouted and he slammed the door in the mans face, He couldn't help but wonder if they would make it to the helicopter. He wasn't, not with this bite.

He rushed towards another door, this one leading to an office. Slamming the door, he pulled out his gun. He had to die, he had to shoot himself in the head and die before he became another infected.

He was gasping by the time he came to himself. Yes, that was right. He knew what was going on, he understood what had happened to him before he died, he had to help the survivors before he reverted and became a preditor on humanity. He needed weapons, needed tools to find out what was going on with the world.

One zombie at a time, then he'd take his turn. He snatched up his supplies, his back up gun still in the safe, he grabbed all the bullets he could, Those that were alive couldn't use guns, or rather shouldn't but the dead wouldn't bother him, or at least, the 'feral' ones. They didn't seem to understand what had happened to them.

Were there any others that were 'awake' like him? He'd have to find out, see if any of the others could think...Talk even. Maybe they could band together, maybe they could help things out-thin out the 'feral' ones.


	2. Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What has the rest of the group been up to?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My muses threw this at me, so yeah bit stunted and what have you ^_^

It had been his fault, Spencer was dead...Was gone, and he hadn't been able to do anything. Derek really freaked out when Spencer had slammed the door in his face, and yet they all understood why. Spencer had been bitten, there was no coming back from a bite by an Infected. The rest of the team, however, had managed to get away, spending time on the USS Arleigh Burke.

We stuck together, so much so that whenever a mission arose they would send us as a group rather than picking certain people, they all knew we were a good team, that we had worked together countless times. It was different of course, rather than hunting down serial killers we were hunting the dead.

And now we were back where we had started in this whole mess. DC was a disaster zone, cars all over the place, the dead crawling all over the place. Back to the place we had lost so much...Jack, Jessica. Will, Henry, and Spencer. Too much had been taken from us, I didn't even know if my son was alive or one of the walking dead if Jessica had made it somewhere safe. The same for J.J. She didn't know where her husband and son were either, we only knew for a fact that we lost Spencer.

And it hurt, to hope that he was the only one we'd lost, that the others were holed up somewhere away from the dead, that they would survive till we found them again, or at least, safe with other survivors. On a boat deep in the ocean rather than on land, and god this was just too much. The dead rising and attacking the living, it was like a damned horror movie, only there was no escaping this...

There might never be an escape for humanity ever, that was what was truly frightening, not the dead rising but that new generations would be and had been born into this mess. It had been nearly a year and a half since this madness crashed into overdrive, no one knew for sure when it actually started, just when it became so bad that we were overrun by the dead.

"Hotch." J.J said, her tone frightened and horrified. I turned and looked at her, she was facing towards a building. I looked towards the building and noticed an infected standing there, just staring at us. Some didn't attack, no one was sure why that was but who cared? It was best just to cut an Infected down.

"J.J. What are you doing shoot it," Derek spat, he hated them more than the rest of us, not that I blamed him. "I.I can't. It's Spencer." What! I turned and looked at the infected again, could that really be Spencer? Why hadn't he shot-My brain refused to complete that sentence. "J.J." Oh, oh god. It was talking, the Infected didn't talk-why was this thing talking?

"Spencer? Is that you?" The thing waved, "Hey, um. Don't shoot me?" Yes, that was Spencer, but he was dead, obviously completely dead. "Spencer how?" He shambled, and that was right. He was Dead! "Don't get any closer." He stopped as I aimed my gun at him, tilting his head. The way he always had when trying to work out a difficult puzzle.

"So, I'm dead, uh, infected. But, but I don't want to hurt you. Just warn you about the group up ahead. I couldn't just let you walk into them." Warn us, and this wasn't happening-I was having a nightmare, I was still on the Burke tossing and turning.

"Spencer, how are you talking? How are you...You?" J.J. asked softly and Spencer frowned. No, the Infected couldn't frown, or talk or...Or be Spencer. "I don't know, I've been 'Awake'," He said with quotations, and damn it. It was Spencer, this was our Spencer but, he was dead. "For three months or so. I uh, I'm not so good with numbers anymore-Higher thinking takes a lot out of me." This Spencer didn't sound quite the same like he had a bad cold actually.

"So the group ahead?" David asked, and that was right. It was the whole group minus Garcia, I looked at our group. Tara was grinning like a fool and Derek was frowning, J.J had tears in her eyes and Rossi looked bemused. Really, what were the odds that Spencer would still be Spencer while he was dead?

"There are about twenty of them, I've been picking them off-There use to be like fifty at one point. It's pretty easy to shoot them, their slow as hell and I don't suffer from nerves anymore. Kind of hard to feel anything really actually, I think this is the first time I've felt fear since I've woken up."

Were there others like Spencer? Did he even know? "Spence, they're moving this way- Probably smelt your living friends." A man spoke from a second-floor window, a sniper rifle aiming up the street. "Thanks, T.J., You guys should come up, none of us will bite you. Promise." How did he know? Just because he didn't want to bite us didn't mean that his friends didn't either.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to mention I am kinemortophobic. Which means I have a phobia of the living dead, aka zombies. Even the super fake ones can give me nightmares, hence, you won't see anything overly violent, and I'm more focused on the character devolopment. I rarely read zombie stories, I have written some in the past for my kindleworlds account, and those often did well compared to my other works there. I am not, however, sure where this will go, any suggestions will actually be taken into consideration!! Thanks! 
> 
> Definitions;
> 
> Breather/Survivor: People who are alive  
> Awake/Awaken/Awaker: The dead who can think, thus imitate life  
> Feral/Feral ones: The dead who are your typical Hollywood zombie  
> Hoard: A group of ten or more zombies

They were hesitant to follow me, and I understood. I was leading them somewhere where there was more Infected, people who were not me and I was pretty sure they didn't trust me either. I was dead after all and all the 'feral' Infected did attack humans.

All infected did feel hunger, but it was a more general thing than living people seemed to think it was. We weren't after just human brains-I'd eaten a dog's brain at this point, the hunger wasn't nearly as bad as when I had woken up.

Now that had been pretty bad, but still-why was my body hungry? It was dead, so exactly what was going on there? I wanted to smile as I came across Betty fully armed and in body armor. Now, Betty she was alive-not one of the infected.

"See you brought me more breathers," She commented with amusement, I wanted to chuckle. But, the sound drove me nuts-actually Betty said it sounded like a death rattle so I tried not to do it around 'Breathers'.

"You're alive," Tara said and Betty grinned, "Yeah thanks to Spencer here, damn bastard just about gave me a heart attack until I realized that he was protecting me, leading me somewhere safe. Didn't say a word this one at first." Yeah, I'd been a bit shy and still trying to remember how to speak, getting used to how my voice had changed.

They seemed to relax a little when they realized that she was alive, that she must trust us to speak about me that way, we were after profilers. That was why I had such a good group, it was hard to slip things past me. It was ingrained in me to profile even now when I was dead and it was harder to think at all.

"How long have you been with Spencer?" Morgan asked softly and Betty smiled; "About a month and a half?" She glanced at me and I nodded, at least, I could keep count of the days still. "He's really good at picking the 'awakers' Who don't want to eat my face off and the Breathers that won't attempt to hurt me or his undead friends. We've got six Breathers and six Awake's, so far we've done pretty well on our own."

Of course I had raided the most likely places for weapons pretty early on and kept doing so as we gained more people. Food was easy too, it wasn't like we were hard pressed at this point, I'm sure eventually we'd have to move.

But, for now, that wasn't a concern. We slipped past Ryan and Tina, both Awake like I was. Attached to Tina's hip was the small girl Breather, who had as of yet said a word to any of us, including Tina.

"Spencer, have you seen...Have you seen Will or Henry?" I frowned and shook my head, "I haven't, I haven't seen Jessica or Jack either. I went you both of your homes and it looked like someone had grabbed things." But that could have been some breathers who found their way into those places.

"We have to tell the others about this," Tara said and I winced. That wouldn't turn out very well for me and my friends. "So we can be tested on? I don't think I'll stick around for that thanks." Tara Lewis frowned.

"But, Spencer-what if there's a way to reverse this?" I sighed; "All the dead will stay dead J.J. We don't even know what started this or how it really works, I know that if I bite any of you would die."

They flinched nearly as a group, and I could have lied but there was no point, not now. "But, the process that makes us Awake is a mystery, finding out how we awaken can be like looking for a soul." Pointless, There might not be any difference between me and the Feral ones.

"Could it be possible to get a sample from you then Spencer?" Tara asked, well..."Depends on what kind you want, because I'm not letting you poke around my brain." As hypocritical as that was, I just didn't want to either become Feral or to lose what I had already worked so hard to get memory wise.

Tara nodded; "If I took a hair sample from you and some of your friends who are willing?" I nodded; "That would be okay, you'd have to ask the others if they'll let you." She nodded, I wondered if I would ever see any of them again when they left. They were no doubt part of a bigger group, looking for food and supplies. Maybe it was time to move, and to talk to the others.

"T.J, how are things looking out there?" He grunted; "Like usual, a shit storm." I snorted, yeah that was T.J. As grumpy as usual. "The hoard?" He sighed, "They have a few stragglers heading this way but otherwise the main group is still heading in the direction they had been." Good, we didn't need to bring unnecessary danger to this group.

"Spencer, who are these people?" Cam said as he entered the room, and seriously he knew I'd never bring anyone in if I didn't think they were good. "These are my old teammates when I was in the F.B.I." Cam relaxed with a heavy sigh; "Sorry." I shook my head; "I know you had it rough before I found you and Agrippa."

Agrippa didn't speak much English, she'd traveled from Russia to America because her mother was getting remarried. Then all hell broke out and she couldn't get away, her entire family scattered, some she knew were dead and others she kept an eye out for.

Cam, he'd been nearly killed by people who were bad news and when he'd escaped them he'd run into a dead end alleyway and too many Feral's to fight off with no weapons. I was just glad I found him before he got killed.

"So, you guys staying or coming and going?" Cam asked and the group looked to Hotch, "We've been sent out by the USS Arleigh Burke to gather supplies and food, we're going back, you're free to join us." Cam nodded and I knew that was what was going to happen. It just hurt that I couldn't go with-that this ragtag group couldn't all join them on the boat.

Boat's were a good idea, ideally, I wanted to get this group on a boat and find an oil rig to go live on, bringing the supplies to run a greenhouse while we were at it and since the feral's never attacked the awake's we could go out and find food and supplies as needed.

"Spencer?" I turned to look at J.J. "You know I can't join you. But, I will bring it up with my group to see if anyone who's still alive wants to join you. I wouldn't suggest any of you joining us, though, we're going to move when we get the chance." Cam grinned; "Spencer came up with the idea to hit up an oil rig and make it home."

We had talked about it, and most of us liked the idea. That was the only reason we'd been scouring every area we were in as we headed steadily to the docks. Hotch looked surprised; "We might be able to help, we could get most of you to one that's just off the coast assuming that the captain of the Burke okay's it."

Cam nodded; "I'll talk to the others Spencer, see if any of them want to try that-the rest of you meeting up with us then." I nodded; "Sounds like a better plan than the one we had. Easier too." Of course the Captain might not like it, but still any chance was better than none.

T.J glanced at me; "You know that would make it so much simpler for us. Not having to watch out for our breathers, maybe find some more Awakers while we're at it so we could haul in more supplies and food for the group."

He had a good point, we hadn't really gotten any more infected that were awake. That might have been because they were afraid the breathers would kill them. The more we gathered to help us the better and I couldn't do that with breathers present. "Send you, Akira, and Cody across to the oil rig so we know for sure the rest of the group are safe."

He grinned, and as hideous as that was it didn't bother me, I could almost feel the shutter in the group behind me. And yes they had once been my friends, but now they could be nothing more then Breathers to me, I had a group to look after and keep safe, I couldn't stay with them.

"So let's wait out these fuckers and then get this show on the road." Now he was talking. "Alright, I'll get the others and we'll take out the stragglers. You guys stay here with the rest of my group and then we'll see if we already have an idea where your checklist might be filled."


End file.
